With the absolutely glorious weather of last weekend as a backdrop, the planet was most worthy of celebration for the 38th observance of Earth Day. The air was clear and warm and spring began when it should, on a Saturday when we are free to enjoy it. It isn't often that nature cooperates in this way. If only that were all Earth Day represented, a passive appreciation for the sweetness of a temperate world.

But the day was conceived in much darker circumstances, as a reaction to a massive oil spill off the coast of California in the summer of 1969. Earth Day was to be a reminder of how fragile the planet is, and how we must actively care for it. It was also to be a rallying day for environmental activism, to counter the much stronger and more compelling forces of blind economic growth, selfishness and greed. It was a radical idea, even back then, during a time so unlike today when this country still believed it could accomplish broad social goals.

We would prefer the earth to remain a quiet, ever-forgiving minister to our desires, infinitely resourceful, with unlimited capacity to swallow our waste and resist our assaults. We heedlessly extract whatever we please from the land and seas, dump the remains without a thought and hastily cover them up, pretending the poisons we create will somehow disappear. In the past this was not unreasonable. The planet was vast, and sparsely populated. There seemed to be no end. But now there is. We can travel anywhere in the world in a day.

The earth does not react to us with emotion, as do so many of the gods we prefer to worship. The earth, more or less, does not care. Hurricane Katrina was nothing personal, destroying forests just as eagerly as cities. In the words of Henry Fielding, "All nature wears one universal grin." This makes the earth a tough candidate for a holiday. Why bother to honor something so indifferent? Ultimately, Earth Day has nothing to do with the earth. It's about people, and improving our life here.

If nothing else, the celebration of this day should raise our awareness that the decisions we make, no matter how trivial they seem, have a larger, more lasting effect. What car we drive, the products we buy, the foods we eat, in and of themselves are meaningless, but collectively can shape the destiny of our species and the planet. One gas guzzling SUV means nothing. A nation addicted to them means we burn every drop of oil we can find, compromise our values and go to war to keep the gas tanks full. A beautiful spring day is a gift to us all. In return, we can collectively present a gift to the spring.

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